SCIENCE, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical (STEM) subjects have a crucial role to play in equipping students in rapidly developing fields such as genomics, data science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and nanomaterials, which are all Fourth Industrial Revolution concepts.

This is according to Higher Education Minister Dr Blade Nzimande during his opening address of the national skills conference on Tuesday.  

Nzimande said that these new subjects would not be limited to a focus on technology but would also include changes in the outcomes of what students are taught, with new entrepreneurship programmes also being introduced at universities to promote new local businesses.

“The innovation and digitalisation put a premium on adaptability and in self-directed learning and thinking,” he said.

“Therefore, lifelong learning will be key as the shelf life of any skills development ecosystem has limitations in the present-day environment.”

He said an evolving 4IR STEM curriculum would have to reconsider the rigid disciplinary boundary framing of traditional subjects such as biology, chemistry and physics— given the integrative role of digital technologies in relation to each and their intersections in the real world.

“It is also inevitable that any effective 4IR strategy should foreground the human condition: the ways in which new technologies and shifting economic power impact on people with regards to equality, human freedom and social solidarity,” said Nzimande.

“It is therefore crucial that the Humanities and Social Sciences must be reinvented and strengthened to play a crucial role in shaping the discourses of science and technology to speak to the cultural, social, political and economic issues. Both the Human Research Council (HSRC) and the National Institute of Humanities and Social Science (NIHSS) must play a leading role in this regard. How do we combat social alienation in a world dominated by machines? How do we ensure algorithms do not engender new forms of racism and class prejudice? How do we harness the powers of the new technologies to overcome the historical questions of oppression and exploitation?”

He added: “The innovation and digitalization puts a premium on adaptability and in self-directed learning and thinking. Therefore lifelong learning will be key as the shelf life of any skills development ecosystem has limitations in the present-day environment. Placing innovation and digitalisation at the centre of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Programme (ERRP).”

“This Government, together with the social partners at NEDLAC, has adopted the ERRP as our emergency economic programme to deal with the impact of Covid 19 on our economy. However the major premise of the ERRP is that we simply do not want to return our country to the economic crisis before COVID-19, but to use this opportunity to build a new and more inclusive economy.”

• * Inside Education

THE University of Pretoria (UP) recently partnered with the National School of Government (NSG) through Enterprises University of Pretoria (Enterprises UP) to accelerate efforts to build an ethical, capable and developmental state.

To preserve value, the public sector requires entities to build an ethical, professional, and capable public sector in order to improve their operations and service delivery, and this can be done with ready access to experienced professionals and specialists who can provide specialised advisory services and training to boost skills and professional development for a future-proof workforce.

The partnership between UP and the NSG is in response to a call from the NSG for partnerships with higher education institutions (HEIs) to provide various education, training, and development functions with the NSG. UP was successful in its bid submission and has been named as a preferred training partner on a list of pre-approved HEIs to perform these functions.

Busani Ngcaweni, Principal of the NSG, stated during the signing ceremony of the National School of Government’s Partnership Agreement with the appointed HEIs hosted by NSG on Thursday, 3 June 2021: “As the National School of Government we are going through a very delicate imagination process that seeks to place us as the National School of Government at the centre of efforts to rebuild state capacity by not only giving hard technical skills but also by dealing with issues of values in the public sector as a whole.”

He stated further: “The task we have together is to lead a skills revolution that will change the performance of the public sector as a whole. We are imagining ourselves as the National School of Government as an assimilator, given the weight and size of the work that we have to do. We must enter into partnerships with yourselves so that we decentralise this idea of an assimilation.

“Our scope of work has expanded, we must train the public sector. However, our strength on our own is very much limited; by entering into this relationship we are building our strength so that we’re able to meet the demands of expectations.”

Speaking on behalf of UP, Professor Norman Duncan, Vice-Principal: Academic of UP, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to collaborate with the NSG. “We are extremely grateful for this opportunity to be in service of the country and that UP can contribute to the capacitation in the public service.”

“We are excited to be part of this partnership with the NSG,” said Professor Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu, Director and Head of the School of Public Management and Administration of UP.

“UP and the School of Management and Public Administration, through Enterprises UP, have been in partnership with the NSG for many years, so this is just further endorsement of how well this partnership is working. We look forward to making contributions to our country.”

SOUTH AFRICA needs to significantly overhaul its education system, with the matric certificate ‘not worth the paper it is printed on’, says Dr Thabi Leoka, founder of economic consulting and advisory company Naha Investments.

Speaking at the recent Allan Gray Investment Summit, Leoka pointed to the high number of graduates that currently cannot find jobs in the country.

“We need the education system to deliver matriculants who understand business so that they can start their own ventures, and create employment,” she said.

“We also need more flexibility of the degree requirements and subject choices at university, so that we can get more people employed.”

Leoka said that South Africa needs to move away from “throwing money at the poor to solve problems”, as this creates reliance on government grants.

“The poor have been increasing as a direct result of policy implementation,” said Leoka. In 2000, there were seven million grant recipients, in 2010 there were 14 million, and in 2021 there are 18.4 million people who rely on social grants, she said.

“We can’t spend our way through our problems. We are allocating a lot of money to consumption, but we need to allocate more to investment to grow the economy. We are also spending more money servicing our debt (11.8%) than we are on health (11.55%); it doesn’t make sense. We need growth to be suitable for our economy, but it is not.”

Not fit for purpose 

Professional services firm PwC has also called for a significant shake-up of the country’s school system.

“Clearly, the current education system is not fit for purpose to provide school leavers the necessary skills – and requires an overhaul,” it said.

“This is also a value-for-money issue: South Africa’s expenditure on education is amongst the highest in the world when expressed as a percentage of GDP.”

However, while the country’s expenditure on education is high on paper, in reality, much of the government’s education funding is lost due to mismanagement and malfeasance in public procurement processes.

As such, despite the large expenditure, the country has not seen the envisaged economic returns, the group said.

“According to the World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI), an average child born in South Africa today will not even reach half their productive potential which they could have if they had full health and education.

“Comparable middle-income countries spend less as a percentage of GDP, but consistently achieve much higher HCI outcomes,” PwC said.

Upskilling will be vital to ensuring that local industries are staffed with people who have the know-how to help drive economic growth.  This is the only way that South African children will reach their productive potential and contribute to growing the economy, the firm said.

“Our analysis shows that, when considering growth enablers like foreign direct investment (FDI), the ease of starting a business, electricity availability/supply, digitalisation, private sector investment, local content and knowledge capital, the gains to job creation from upskilling and improving knowledge capital would be the second most impactful after improving electricity reliability.”

Education needs to be better 

However, PwC warned that upskilling initiatives for young South Africans will not move to the next level if education fundamentals are not strengthened.

Despite great progress in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) education, literacy tests show that 78% of South African learners ages 9 to 10 are not able to read for meaning.

“Poor academic achievement is, in part, the result of underfunding and poor quality of the education system. In 2018, one in five public schools did not have proper toilet facilities; while 86% had no laboratory, 77% had no library, and 72% had no internet.

“A 2014 study of teachers showed that 79% of Grade 6 mathematics teachers have a subject knowledge below the level they are currently teaching.”

Immediate changes to South Africa’s skills and education systems should include a shift to lifelong learning pathways, the growth in digital education, and new funding models for higher education, PwC said.

YOUNG and unemployed South Africans are urged to apply online for education assistant teaching posts which the Department of Basic Education (DBE) opened on Monday morning.

The department is hoping to provide employment and training opportunities to 287 000 unemployed young people as they need about 192 000 education assistants and about 95 000 general school assistants.

This is part of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative and is known as the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI), which forms part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus seeking to mitigate the devastating economic challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said about 300 000 young people participated in the first phase.

“As in phase 1, there will be a strong emphasis on training participants, with a view to adding to their skills set, as well as setting them up for improved employment prospects. Young people recruited for phase 2 of the Basic Education Employment Initiative can expect to receive training in the following areas,” Mhlanga said.

“Phase II will focus on addressing the reduction of youth unemployment, as the data collected throughout the initiative has shown that most of the young people are unemployed graduates, who lack the relevant experience to propel them to employment.”

“Phase II will also provide experiential learning, whilst ensuring that those who studied education or are interested in education as a field of study, will be directed to paths that will lead them back to the sector.”

Applications for this phase two employment initiative are expected to close on October 3 and no walk-in will be allowed in schools due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Mhlanga said the youth must be between the ages of 18 and 35, who are currently neither in education or training, receiving any form of government grant.

Young people with disabilities and women are eligible and encouraged to apply for this experience.

Posts that will be made available include education assistant for curriculum education, general school assistant for child & youth care worker and general school assistant for sports and enrichment agent no matric is required.

Candidates who are selected for placement, will have an opportunity to receive training on various skills that will equip them for future employment opportunities.

All successful candidates will be placed in schools for 5 months, from November 1 until March next year.

To apply for placement, visit sayouth.mobi to create a profile and submit the application.

Updates on the initiative can also be found on Facebook: Basic Education Employment Initiative https://www.facebook.com/phase2beei

• * Inside Education

IN July this year, the University of Cape Town (UCT) launched an online high school, and in doing so became the first university on the African continent to extend its expertise and impact to the secondary schooling market through an innovative online modality.

Bolstering the launch announcement, the University of Cape Town has confirmed the placement of its UCT Online High School director and principal, Yandiswa Xhakaza, an avid educationalist.

Xhakaza brings a wealth of knowledge, having started and operated a school in Centurion in 2017. She is a prolific leader and comes from leading a national literacy organisation, the Nal’ibali Trust, where she served as CEO.

 She holds a bachelor of education degree (Wits University), a postgraduate diploma in management (Wits University) and a master of business administration (University of Pretoria). Her operational skills and large-scale implementation capabilities are both going to be resourceful in her new role as UCT Online High School Director and Principal.

Xhakaza believes that UCT Online High School is exactly what this country needs, offering high-quality education at scale. She explains: “Online education in our context will always come with its own fair share of challenges as a developing country.

“The digital divide is significant and we have to work around the digital barriers such as poor network coverage, data costs, access to devices and computer literacy to mention a few. This is exactly the type of challenge I am excited about, because when we get this right, it will be a massive win for all of us.”

Xhakaza begins her tenure as the director and principal of the UCT Online High School from November 2021 ahead of its first official cohort, cementing her role as its leader from an early onset.

‘”I am delighted to be joining the UCT Online High School team pioneering such amazing work and I look forward to breaking barriers and working towards the accomplishment of something so deeply personal to me, a course I have been preparing my whole life to chart forth.”

UCT vice chancellor professor Mamokgethi Phakeng welcomed the appointment saying: “Yandiswa embodies what we as an institution stand for: building an inclusive society using the knowledge and resources that we possess. With her leading us on this journey we will be building a more equitable and sustainable social order and influencing our young people from an early age to prepare them for the demands of higher education and society.”

Adding support in her career move, acting chairperson of the Nal’ibali Trust, Kay Lala-Sides, says: “We know that Yandiswa has a real passion for making high-quality education accessible to all South Africans. It is that passion that led her to Nal’ibali and it is the same passion that draws her to UCT’s Online High School. We wish her well as she takes these experiences with her into her new role and look forward to opportunities to collaborate in the future.”

SOUTH African communities have continued to struggle in their quest to access clean and readily available water as well as safe and secure sanitation infrastructure. Schools, in particular, are a serious source of concern with many of them around the country lacking clean water and decent toilets consequently affecting students and their ability to maintain hygiene standards.

This situation is even more dire in the face of the current Covid-19 pandemic which demands very high hygienic standards to prevent its rapid spread.

What are the current statistics regarding access to water and sanitation facilities?

• According to the Department of Water, 3 million households in South Africa do not have access to reliable drinking water; and 14.1 million people do not have access to safe sanitation.
• A study by the Limpopo Department of Basic Education has found that 80% of schools in Limpopo were still using basic pit toilets which are unhygienic and unsafe, with no access to water or facilities that cater to those with disabilities or girls during menstruation.
• The report also showed that 35% of schools had toilets that were in such poor condition that they needed to be replaced, and 37% of toilets across schools were pit toilets and insufficient for the number of pupils.
• 4% of households in rural communities reported that there was no water to wash their hands after using the toilet.
• The Department of Water and Sanitation also reported that washing hands and having access to facilities was lowest in Limpopo (57, 8% and 35, 9% respectively) as compared to other provinces such as Western Cape (96, 3% and 83, 9% respectively).

What are the implications of lack of clean water and decent sanitation facilities?

• A lack of clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene in schools increases the risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid and other recurrent sicknesses. This leads to poor health for students and their families – resulting in children missing out on school.
• The lack of clean water and decent toilets serves as the perfect environment for COVID-19 to thrive, which puts pressure on our health services.

What interventions have been put in place?

In order to mitigate the impact of a lack of clean water and provide solutions to the increasingly urgent need for schools to have these basic human needs for learning and development, Baby Soft® is working together with Water Aid through the Toilets Change Lives initiative. This partnership is focused on providing clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene facilities to ten schools in Limpopo province, South Africa.

The goal is to transform the lives of school children in the Vhembe district of the Limpopo province, South Africa. Key achievements so far include:

• Increased access to clean water through the rehabilitation and construction of 19 stand pipes and increased water storage capacity in 5 schools reaching 1,200 pupils and 42 teachers.
• Increased access to decent toilets through the construction and rehabilitation of 4 toilet blocks in 4 schools, all with female and disability friendly amenities reaching 880 pupils.
• Increased hygiene standards through the installation of 22 concrete handwashing facilities across 5 schools for both girls and boys reaching a total of 1,200 pupils highlighting good hygiene and handwashing practices in schools.

How can you get involved?

To contribute to this initiative, you can look out for the specially marked pack of Baby Soft® Toilet Paper 18’s in your retail store and help build toilets for school children. R4 from the sale of each pack will be donated to WaterAid. The project aims to build toilets for school children in districts that need it most across South Africa.

In the next three years, Baby Soft and WaterAid will build toilets and improve sanitation access for 8,574 pupils and teachers in 10 schools and over 17,000 people in the surrounding community.

To find out more, visit www.wateraid.org

• Lowvelder

SCHOOLCHILDREN around the world have lost an estimated 1.8 trillion hours – and counting – of in-person learning since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. As a result, young learners have been cut off from their education and the other vital benefits schools provide.

To call attention to this education crisis, UNICEF today unveiled ‘No Time to Lose’ at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The centrepiece of the installation is a clock, modelled to look like the blackboard of an empty classroom, situated at the UN Visitors’ Plaza in front of the General Assembly Building.

The clock is a real-time counter, displaying the growing cumulative number of in-person learning hours every schoolchild in the world has lost and continues to lose since the pandemic’s onset. The empty classroom consists of 18 desks, one for every month of the pandemic-caused education disruptions.

The installation is being created ahead of the opening of the General Debate of the 76^th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), a period when some leaders will take the opportunity to return to United Nations headquarters in person for the first time since the onset of the pandemic.

“Next week, the United Nations will open its doors to delegations from around the world. But in many countries, the doors of schools will remain closed to children and young people,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

“We are short-changing an entire generation whose minds and futures hang in the balance. We must prioritize the reopening of schools and support those who have lost out during the pandemic. There is no time to lose.”

This year, the General Debate and associated annual meetings will take place in a hybrid format, with many events taking place virtually.

The installation, open to delegations which will have elected to attend General Assembly meetings in-person, is a stark reminder that millions of schoolchildren remain locked out of their schools and a call for leaders to act urgently on this education crisis.

The installation will be up from 17 September to 27 September with the conclusion of UNGA.*

Globally, around 131 million schoolchildren in 11 countries have missed three-quarters of their in-person learning from March 2020 to September 2021. Among them, 59 per cent – or nearly 77 million – have missed almost all in-person instruction time.

Around 27 per cent of countries continue to have schools fully or partially closed. Additionally, according to UNESCO’s latest data, more than 870 million students at all levels are currently facing disruptions to their education.

UNICEF urges governments, local authorities, and school administrations to reopen schools as soon as possible and take all possible steps to mitigate against transmission of the virus in schools, such as:  

• Implementing mask policies for students and staff that are in accordance with national and local guidelines;
• Providing handwashing facilities and/or hand sanitiser;
• Frequently cleaning surfaces and shared objects;
• Ensuring adequate and appropriate ventilation;
• Cohorting (keeping students and teachers in small groups that do not mix); staggering start, break, bathroom, meals and end time; and alternating physical presence;
• Establishing information sharing mechanisms with parents, students and teachers;
• While not a prerequisite to reopen schools, teachers should be prioritised to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, after frontline health workers and those most at risk, to protect them from community transmission.

Additionally, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP and the World Bank previously issued the Framework for School Reopening to provide practical and flexible advice for national and local governments and aid their efforts to return students to in-person learning.

“Every hour a child spends in the classroom is precious – an opportunity to expand their horizons and maximize their potential. And with each passing moment, countless amounts of opportunity are lost,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.

“1.8 trillion hours – and counting – is an unfathomable amount of time. Equally unfathomable is setting priorities around mitigating the impacts of COVID that do not put our children’s future first. We can and must reopen schools as soon as possible. The clock is ticking.”

• * Unicef news